Thread: Netiquette guidelines

More needed then ever?


Rule 1: Remember the human

The golden rule your parents and your kindergarten teacher taught you was pretty simple: Do unto others as you'd have others do unto you. Imagine how you'd feel if you were in the other person's shoes. Stand up for yourself, but try not to hurt people's feelings.

Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life

In real life, most people are fairly law-abiding, either by disposition or because we're afraid of getting caught. In cyberspace, the chances of getting caught sometimes seem slim. And, perhaps because people sometimes forget that there's a human being on the other side of the computer, some people think that a lower standard of ethics or personal behavior is acceptable in cyberspace. The confusion may be understandable, but these people are mistaken. Standards of behavior may be different in some areas of cyberspace, but they are not lower than in real life.

Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace

When you enter a domain of cyberspace that's new to you, take a look around. Spend a while listening to the chat or reading the archives. Get a sense of how the people who are already there act. Then go ahead and participate.

Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth

It's a cliche that people today seem to have less time than ever before. When you send email or post to a discussion group, you're taking up other people's time (or hoping to). It's your responsibility to ensure that the time they spend reading your posting isn't wasted. The word "bandwidth " is sometimes used synonymously with time, but it's really a different thing. Bandwidth is the information-carrying capacity of the wires and channels that connect everyone in cyberspace. There's a limit to the amount of data that any piece of wiring can carry at any given moment.

Rule 5: Make yourself look good online

Pay attention to the content of your writing. Be sure you know what you're talking about. In addition, make sure your notes are clear and logical. Finally, be pleasant and polite. Don't use offensive language, and don't be confrontational for the sake of confrontation.

Rule 6: Share expert knowledge

The reason asking questions online works is that a lot of knowledgeable people are reading the questions. It's especially polite to share the results of your questions with others. When you anticipate that you'll get a lot of answers to a question, or when you post a question to a discussion group that you don't visit often, it's customary to request replies by email instead of to the group. When you get all those responses, write up a summary and post it to the discussion group. That way, everyone benefits from the experts who took the time to write to you.

Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control

"Flaming"is what people do when they express a strongly held opinion without holding back any emotion. Netiquette does forbid the perpetuation of flame wars -- series of angry letters, most of them from two or three people directed toward each other, that can dominate the tone and destroy the camaraderie of a discussion group. It's unfair to the other members of the group.

Rule 8: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes

When someone makes a mistake -- whether it's a spelling error or a spelling flame, a stupid question or an unnecessarily long answer -- be kind about it. If it's a minor error, you may not need to say anything. Even if you feel strongly about it, think twice before reacting. If you do decide to inform someone of a mistake, point it out politely, and preferably by private email rather than in public.

The above is a summary of the summary found here

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